DNF: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

8:00:00 AM

For my first DNF review, I really hate that it
has to be this book. I've been a fan of Cassie Clare books for years now, and
the buildup to Lady Midnight was so intense that I had such high hopes for the
book. Everyone who had received ARCs and read it before me was saying that it
was a fantastic book, most readers devouring it in a matter of days. As I had
never really felt let down by Cassie's books before, I was certain that Lady
Midnight would meet or exceed expectations.

Sadly, this was not the case for me.

The first problem I encountered was a lack of
motivation to read this book. I was so eager to finally dive in that once I had
my hands on a copy, I was met with a story I just didn't get attached to. The
characters, while diverse in range, were just too plain, too one-dimensional.
Each had a single defining trait that guided their storyline. Emma's was the
death of her parents. Julian's was his assumed role as head of the Blackthorn
family. Christina's was the fact she was from Mexico. Not to mention the fact
that Cassandra bit off way more than she could chew by giving Julian a large
family to look after. After a while, I couldn't tell Dru from Livvy or Tavvy
from Ty and it all started to muddle together. The characters were just flat,
nothing more than the one thing about them that set them apart. Instead of
making the story interesting, it just made it boring.

Another aspect that really hindered me was how
meta it all was. With constant reference to things that happened previously in
the Shadowhunters books, it was a headache to keep up with and all began to
feel like some odd fan fiction of the previous stories. What's worse is how
much I loved the writing in some points, nearly poetic in style; only to have
the next page completely ruin it by making some weird joke about llamas or one
random thing or another. At times it felt like the kind of thing my friends and
I wrote in our "RAWR means 'I love you' in dinosaur! I'm so random!"
phase. (And I wish I was joking about the fact I even had one of those phases...) It wound up detracting from such beautiful writing in the end. It even
felt repetitive of Cassandra’s previous storylines, it had that same formulaic
layout overall.

Cassandra also seemed very typecast in her
characters. Christina was the mothering Mexican, the sweet one whose presence
was every bit the chicana trope. Emma was your token revenge plot, the
character hell bent on vengeance for past wrongdoings to the point of
consumption. The way Cassie writes warlocks, one would assume they're all
sassy, gay, overconfident, and effeminate; Malcom Fade was no exception. The
characters, once again, did not feel like real people but like manifestations
of stereotypes or common tropes. Aside from their single defining traits and
the stereotypes and tropes they followed, it felt like they had no range or
depth of emotion but rather were constantly stuck in one set feeling.

Yes, I did make it all the way to that scene. While so achingly beautiful
and written so delicately, I honestly just couldn’t accept it as being
believable. SPOILER ALERT FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH OKAY. How are you
going to tell me that if you spent the last twenty minutes drowning you’re
going to be ready for sex almost immediately after being revived? No less, sex
with a virgin who has no experience and yet no hesitations, either. Sex for
your first time is supposed to be clumsy, it’s beautiful, it’s amazing, it’s
awkward… This scene was all fluff, too perfect and not enough for me to believe
it.

SPOILERS OVER!

But don’t interpret that as me discrediting it as a whole; I recognize that
this is a drama and things happen; it’s urban fantasy about half-angel warriors
saving the world, for crying out loud, but just bear with me, ok?

Perhaps the biggest letdown was the hype
surrounding this book. I was so looking forward to reading a new generation of
Shadowhunters in present-day adventures, and what I was met with was instead
nothing like I had expected or was led to believe we would receive. Perhaps
it's my own fault for contributing to the buildup of hype but in the end it was
just a book I couldn't continue, no matter how hard I tried. I was simply bored of
it and reading it just became a chore as the cons outweighed the pros.

I have no doubt I'll eventually return to this
book to finish it, but for now it will sit on my shelf with a bookmark
smack in the middle of it until I choose to pick it up once again.

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Giselle is an Editing, Writing, and Media major at Florida State University - which is a fancy way of saying she is studying to become a publisher. Also an avid horror movie enthusiast, crazy cat lady, java junkie, makeup fanatic, picture taker, candlestick maker, and Wilderness Explorer, she blogs about books and does freelance graphic design.

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1 comments

I'm sorry you felt this way about the book! For me, it was alright. Definetely not my favorite of the shadowhunters books, but still good. My problem with this book was that, even if I liked the characters, there wasn't a character that I connected with or loved in a way that made me completely invested in the story.

lattes&literature

Welcome to A Book and a Cup of Coffee! My name is Giselle, I also go by Gee, and this is a blog centered around book reviews, playlists, discussions, & other fun bookish things. Grab a cup and cozy up with a good book!